ON ST. HUGH OF AMBRONAY, CONFESSOR, ABBOT, IN THE DIOCESE OF BELLEY, FORMERLY OF LYON,
IN THE NINTH OR TENTH CENTURY.
Memorial from the calendars and the Breviary.
Hugh, abbot of Ambronay, in the diocese of Belley in Gaul. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
In the open and most pleasant plain of the Eastern Sebusiani, or of the district of Bâgé, there once rose Ambroniacum , St. Hugh, abbot of Ambronay, died on this day an illustrious monastery of the Benedictine order of the congregation of St. Maur, with the town placed round about and subject to it, to which it gave its own name, not far from the river Idanius , ten French miles distant from Lyon, a little more than three from the monastery of St. Ragnebert, nine from Belica *, in whose diocese it is now enclosed, and lastly situated on the very public highway by which the people of Geneva, the Alamanni and the greatest part of the Sequani make their way to Lyon Gallia Christiana nova, vol. IV, col. 270.. It had as founder, toward the end of the eighth century, St. Barnard, or Bernard, who was afterward made archbishop of Vienne and whose Life Bolland long ago published at January 23 Acta SS. vol. II of January, page 546, after him Mabillon Acta SS. Ord. S. Benedicti, saec. IV, part I, page 582., more recently in the vernacular the Rev. Mr. Depéry, vicar general of Belley Histoire hagiographique du diocèse de Bellay, vol. I, page 113 and following., and others. Further, in the catalogue of the abbots of this house of ascetics, which may be seen in the new Gallia christiana Vol. IV, col. 271 and following., there comes in the first place the anonymous master of St. Bernard, abbot of Ambronay from being a monk of Luxeuil; in the second place St. Bernard himself is reckoned; and in the third St. Hugh, who is called the first of this name, to distinguish him from another Hugh, who held the abbatial crozier in the year 1247. Of this St. Hugh we must treat at this day in whatever way we can. But truly scarcely anything has become known of him. In the new Gallia Christiana Ibid. loc. cit. these things are read of him: St. Hugh I, whose age is unknown, is recorded in a manuscript Breviary, but one compiled only in the year 1519 through the care of Brother Urbin of Antioch, almoner, as abbot from being a monk, distinguished for birth, learning and holiness of life. Likewise in the calendar both of the same Breviary and in the old one of St. Ragnebert is read on the 12th of the kalends of November: The Passing of St. Hugh. His relics are preserved and venerated in the basilica of Ambronay, and his feast is kept with solemn rite on May 10.
[2] He seems to have lived in the ninth or tenth century. But in the Catalogue of the abbots of Ambronay, which the brothers de Sainte-Marthe took from the History of Bresse of Guichenon, a most studious man, only one Hugh, called the second by the Maurists, was admitted Gallia Christina, vol. IV, page 59, Paris, 1656.. For this reason, and also because his age is unknown, it comes to mind to doubt whether that St. Hugh, called the first by the Maurists, is not the same as the one who is called the second. I would not dare to affirm it: both because his cult seems ancient, since his passing is inscribed in the old calendar of St. Ragnebert; and because after the middle of the thirteenth century, in which Hugh II lived, scarcely any in Gaul were honoured with heavenly honours, especially with the title of saint bestowed and with the elevation of relics, without the authority of the Roman pontiff: and certainly, if this had been done, it seems that some memory of this matter would have been preserved. For from the twelfth century a good many documents of the monastery of Ambronay remain. We willingly grant, therefore, that the Maurists' opinion that St. Hugh of Ambronay flourished in the ninth or tenth century is very probable. Now no memory of him seems any longer to survive in the diocese of Belley; certainly the Most Rev. Lord Devie, bishop of Belley, gave him no place in the very copious calendar which he inserted in his most praiseworthy Ritual [Rituel du diocèse de Belley, vol. III, page 203 and following, and page 347 and following.]; and the Rev. Mr. Depéry not only gave him no place in the Hagiological History of the diocese of Belley, but did not even mention him in the catalogue of the abbots of Ambronay Histoire hagiologique du diocèse de Belley, vol. I, page 193.. In the end I should add that in the year 1792 the buildings of this monastery were sold and partly destroyed, partly changed into private houses. The church, part of which was built in the ninth century, was made a parish church Ibid. page 198..
Annotations* Ambronay
* Ains
* Bellay